Hampton Roads Alliance

05/13/2026

A new Mobility Innovation Center is coming to Newport News thanks to a $3 million state grant aimed at advancing transportation technology, research, and workforce development 🚘⚙️. As aerospace continues to be a key industry identified in the Hampton Roads Playbook, projects like this help position the region for continued growth in advanced manufacturing, autonomous systems, aviation, and next-generation mobility innovation.

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) — Newport News City Council is expected to vote Tuesday to send more than $3 million to Newport News-Williamsburg Airport to keep operations moving for another year. Howeve…

05/12/2026

Investing in early childhood education is also an investment in long-term economic growth, which is why the Alliance is proud to support “Early Childhood Investment: Unlocking Economic Growth” alongside many of our regional leaders and partners. Guests are invited to discover how the early care and education system serves as a cornerstone for a thriving Hampton Roads' economy. Exploring the direct connections between workforce readiness, business growth, and economic development, this event will highlight the vital role early childhood education plays in building a competitive regional workforce

Tuesday, May 19 from7:30 am – 9:00 am at Chartway Arena at Old Dominion University
Presented by the Hampton Roads Executive Roundtable and Minus 9 to 5 at ODU

This event is free and open to the public! Learn more and register: https://ow.ly/QczE50YYmFx

05/12/2026

Alliance investor, Ferguson, is working toward a goal of connecting 50,000 young people to skilled trades careers by 2030, helping strengthen the future workforce pipeline for industries critical to Hampton Roads 🔧📚. Investments in career exposure, training, and workforce development create new opportunities for students while supporting the long-term talent needs of businesses across the region.

Read more about Ferguson's goal as well as the community partnerships and local branch initiatives that helping students gain early exposure to the industry and explore future career paths.

How Ferguson is helping build homes, infrastructure and futures in our communities

05/08/2026

A $681 million investment. 330+ new jobs. And a building that will become the tallest in the Commonwealth of Virginia — rising right here in Chesapeake.

Earlier this week, LS GreenLink celebrated an important milestone – the start of vertical construction for one of the world's most advanced high-voltage submarine cable manufacturing facilities. The 750,000-square-foot facility and 660-foot Vertical Continuous Vulcanization tower aren't just impressive numbers — they're a signal to the world that Hampton Roads is where next-generation energy infrastructure gets built.

As Douglas L. Smith, President and CEO of the Hampton Roads Alliance said, “this investment reflects the vision laid out in our regional Playbook, positioning Hampton Roads as a leader in next-generation energy infrastructure manufacturing. We are proud to support LS GreenLink as they build a globally significant facility that will power the future of energy from right here in Hampton Roads.”

Read the complete news release at the link in comments.

05/07/2026

Congratulations to Michael Evans, the Alliance's Director of Business Intelligence, on being named a Virginia Business 2026 Forty Under 40 honoree! 🎉

On Tuesday night, members of the Alliance team traveled to Richmond to celebrate Michael and the many outstanding leaders recognized at this year’s awards dinner. We’re proud to see Michael honored alongside changemakers from across the Commonwealth who are making a lasting impact in their industries and communities.

Michael’s leadership, insight, and commitment to strengthening Hampton Roads continue to help drive economic growth and opportunity across our region. Read more here: https://ow.ly/ZRJ550YWg40

05/06/2026

What does it really take to work well with others — across industries, across regions, across the world?

During the Hampton Roads Defense Tech Delegation to the United Kingdom earlier this year, Sheffield Forgemasters CEO Gary Nutter met with us to talk about their mission and what it means to lean into collaboration — forging stronger communities, economies, and nations in the process.

Hit play. You'll want to hear this.

Wondering how this all fits in to the economic growth of our region? Take a look at the Hampton Roads Playbook website at link in comments. We will compete and win in the new economic order by focusing on Defense, Energy, Aerospace, and Logistics (DEAL) and advancing transformative projects that grow our workforce, strengthen infrastructure, and secure long-term investment.

04/29/2026

Sheffield proves what's possible when a city commits (fully) to its industrial identity.

Last month, the Hampton Roads Alliance-led Defense Delegation traveled to Sheffield, a major city in South Yorkshire, England, as part of a broader mission to benchmark global best practices in defense manufacturing, workforce development, and economic innovation.

Sheffield, the United Kingdom’s steel city, didn't just show us its history. It showed us its future.

We toured Sheffield Forgemasters, a 250-year-old heavy engineering firm producing some of the world's largest and most technically complex cast and forged steel components, now evolving to serve defense, nuclear, and offshore sectors. Legacy and relevance, built into the same facility.

We walked through Factory 2050, the UK's first fully reconfigurable research factory, where advanced robotics and digital technologies are being used to prototype the next generation of manufacturing methods, and where we had the chance to build real relationships with industry leaders navigating the same questions we are.

We visited the AMRC "Factory of the Future," a University of Sheffield research center that has helped cut production times on complex components from 40 hours to 3.

That's not incremental improvement.

That's transformation.

And we spent time at the AMRC Training Centre, where apprenticeship meets academia, and where 460+ industry partners (including Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Siemens, and McLaren) are actively co-investing in the workforce pipeline.

Why does this matter for Hampton Roads?

We built our own playbook — the Hampton Roads Playbook — for defense manufacturing competitiveness, for workforce development, for connecting our region's deep military heritage to next-generation industrial capacity.

Sheffield is proof that it can be done. A city that turned steel into a legacy, and then turned that legacy into a living, evolving engine for the modern defense and advanced manufacturing economy.

The Hampton Roads Playbook (learn more at link in comments) is about more than economic development strategy. It's about building the kind of ecosystem fueled by research, industry, training, and talent that can compete on a global stage.

Sheffield gave us a clear look at what that ecosystem can look like.

04/27/2026

“When you think about the trajectory of economic development, it used to be about finding a good building, and then it was finding a good site and then it became finding the workforce. Today, a critical part of the economic development discussion is what we are going to do about energy demand and energy supply in the future. That’s why it is so exciting for all of us to be here together committed to solving our most pressing energy challenges, fully leveraging public and private partnerships, academic leaders, non-profits and others across the region.” -Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade Carrie Chenery

ICYMI...last week regional and state leaders gathered on Earth Day to celebrate the grand opening and ribbon cutting of the Secure Energy Future Center (SEFC) at Tech Center Research Park, officially launching a first-of-its-kind innovation hub designed to advance next-generation energy solutions in Virginia and beyond.

Get all the details about this core project that's part of the Hampton Roads Playbook at link in comments.

04/21/2026

More than $1 million has been awarded to advance the Hampton Roads Playbook, supporting collaborative efforts to drive regional growth and competitiveness. These investments will help accelerate key initiatives across industries, reinforcing the Alliance’s work with our 15 localities and private sector partners to move Hampton Roads forward.

“These two grants move Hampton Roads from planning to action on two of our most critical economic priorities,” said Tom Frantz, Chair, GO Virginia Region 5. “Ensuring our industrial sites are market-ready and that our defense supply chains are resilient and connected to global opportunity are exactly the kinds of foundational investments that will keep this region competitive for the long term.”

The Hampton Roads Alliance and EVRIFA have secured $1,042,944 in GO Virginia grants to advance the Hampton Roads Playbook.

04/13/2026

ICYMI: Governor Spanberger announced this month that Tidal Flight — a Hampton Roads-based startup developing the next generation of hybrid-electric amphibious aircraft — plans to invest $538,000 to expand the company’s operations in the Commonwealth. With this investment, Tidal Flight will lease 13,000 square feet of hangar space at Chesapeake Regional Airport and hire an additional six employees, tripling the company’s existing workforce.

Get the full story at link in comments.

This expansion reinforces the work of the Hampton Roads Playbook and the "A" or Aerospace component of the DEAL Framework: Defense-Energy-Aerospace-Logisitics!

04/09/2026

Come see the future of naval engineering in action!

The Office of Naval Research, in partnership with the American Society of Naval Engineers - ASNE, invites the public and media to attend the Promoting Electric Propulsion Collegiate Boat Competition, a free, three-day event featuring high-speed electric boat races, student innovation and hands-on exposure to maritime careers.

Taking place April 14–16, 2026 at Portsmouth City Park, PEP26 brings together more than 350 collegiate engineers from over 45 universities to race more than 55 electric-powered vessels in the Elizabeth River. The teams will share their engineering processes and demonstrate their cutting-edge designs.

PEP26 is more than a race – it also highlights the strength of regional workforce efforts such as the Hampton Roads Maritime Training System - HRMTS, a collaborative initiative led by the Hampton Roads Workforce Council to meet growing demand for skilled maritime workers.

Want more details? Visit link in comments.